


Poppies

by Deleaf



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:00:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24011692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deleaf/pseuds/Deleaf
Summary: As the second world war looms over the horizon, a young Nico di Angelo dreams of the carnage to come.Contains imagery that may be upsetting.  Please feel free to skip this one if you do not feel in the right place to view such things.  There are plenty of other amazing works on this website alone :)
Relationships: Bianca di Angelo & Nico di Angelo, Maria di Angelo & Nico di Angelo
Kudos: 22





	Poppies

Nico dreams of death.

He is six years old and spends his nights in the grasp of nightmare after nightmare. By the time morning comes, his sheets are soaked with sweat, tears and sometimes, embarrassingly, urine.

Mama used to come in a hurry at the sound of his screams, but now she merely grasps his sister tighter and sleeps through it.

Nico is more distressed by this fact than anything else, especially that one night when the world seemed to come apart for the son of Hades.

The night had started like any other. A glass of water was poured, teeth were checked for cleanliness and half-hearted wishes for sweet dreams were made. Nico held his mother as tightly as he did any other night and bit back his tears like the other children at school had told him he should.

He made his way upstairs, pausing at the landing to listen to Mama and Bianca turning on the radio to listen for news. War was on the horizon. That was all Nico was allowed to know. He was somewhat curious. The schoolboys would play soldiers in the yard and talk about how they  _ loved _ Italy more than anyone. Nico would try to play too, but Mama always said he shouldn’t and he didn’t like upsetting her.

Some nights he thought about staying up to listen to the news, but they played the radio far too quietly for him to hear. He knew from waking up during a nightmare that it was only after he started screaming that they turned the volume up.

Nico sighed and padded over to his bed. Mama had made his bed that morning and Nico liked to imagine her doing it with his favourite smile of hers. The sheets were scratchy but fresh and the blanket smelled pleasantly musty.

He sank into the creaky bed with the solemn face of a soldier. He clutched his teddy with all his strength as he fought sleep. It overtook him eventually, as it did every night.

He opened his eyes to a room full of men. They were wearing...Nico squinted at the men as they came into focus. Nothing. They were wearing nothing at all. Which was especially strange when you looked at just how many of them were squished into the room.

Body parts pressed against Nico as the men jostled for room. He looked upward and was surprised at the state of the men. Ribs poked out of their sides far too sharply. Their cheekbones were prominent in a rather ghoulish way. And their eyes...they held a hopelessness in them that made Nico’s blood run cold.

Some of the men murmured to each other in an attempt to figure out what they were doing here. Nico didn’t know the language, but somehow he could understand perfectly well.

_ Why did they take us here? _ a man with a tangled beard asked.

_ Showers _ , another said gruffly, though he clearly didn’t believe his own words.  _ They said it was for showers _ .

Others remained mostly silent, though there were a few sniffles.

Nico’s eyes caught on the figure of a boy about his age crying red hot tears and clasping the hand of an older man. The boy seemed on the verge of collapse, his limbs were so frail.

_ Papa _ , the boy said far too emphatically.  _ Papa...I love you, Papa _ .

The man deflated at the boy’s words. He silently picked the boy up and held him against his skinny chest. The man kissed the boy’s head and softly closed his eyes.

Nico was just about to walk over to the pair when he heard a click from above. He looked up along with the other men as a strange mist floated down from an opening in the ceiling.

A man beside Nico coughed. Another rubbed his eyes. A strange odour hit Nico and he backed into a wall. The little boy cried out and clasped his hand over his mouth.

_ Slap _

Nico watched with horror as the one of the men’s legs gave out. The little boy grew still in his father’s arms. His father seemed strangely restful when this happened, even when his eyes filled with incredible sadness.

Nico swallowed and pressed his hands over his eyes, but he couldn’t shut out the sounds of the men coughing and hitting the ground.

The gas didn’t seem to affect Nico, but the death surrounding him did. He knew these men were not far from death in his bones. It radiated from them with an overwhelming presence.

_ Slap _

Nico sobbed as a man hit the floor. 

_ Slap slap _

Two more followed. From the sounds, he could tell they weren’t even properly on the ground now, but piling on top of each other.

Nico felt his knees give in. For once, his screams weren’t unwelcome as he tried to drown out the death surrounding him. It hit him with a renewed force, however, when he felt the life of that little boy give out properly.

Nico nervously removed his hands from his eyes and looked over at the eyes of the boy. His eyes almost seemed to fixate on Nico, even when he was clearly dead.

Nico swallowed a gulp of tears and air and tried to pry his eyes away from the boy.

He couldn’t.

He found himself shaking with an awful amount of force and sobbed.

Then, suddenly, he was blinking open his eyes to a different scene.

His sister knelt beside his bed with one hand on Nico’s arm as he tried to get used to the waking world.

When he did, it was to sob out her name. “ _ Bianca _ .”

HIs sister sighed and curled her arms around his young self.

Nico sobbed into her nightgown. He was surprised to learn he wasn’t crying out of fear like all the other times, but out of grief. As he tried to forget that awful bitter smell from his brain he found himself mourning.

“Never leave me,” he sobbed into his sister. “There is too much death already.”

His sister just held him tighter.


End file.
